PIM PAM PUM PHRASR

WHAT IS PHRASR
It is a tool which allows people to illustrates phrases with images. The images comes from Flickr. In other words, users can choose any images which they think suitable for each of words in a phrase.

AGE AND LEVEL OF LEARNERS
# Age of learners - thirteen to fifteen years old (older learners might not interested as it requires only simple sentences)
# Level of learners - low and intermediate (advanced students might find this tool a bit boring)

HOW TO USE PHRASR
# The website link is: Phrasr Website
# Type your sentence(s) in the box provided and click 'Start'

# The image and your sentence(s) will appear on the screen

# If you are not happy with the images, you may change it - there are a lot of option available

# Once you finish choosing the images and satisfied with it, you may type the title and your name and click 'Publish' .. Finish!
# You may play it again, view it in the archive, recyle it or sent it to your friend
# For video tutorial on how to create a picture using Phrasr, you may click on this link: Phrasr Tutorial


EXAMPLE OF PHRASR
This a a link of my presentation using Phrasr: My Bag [Phrasr Presentation]


SUGGESTION OF ACTIVITIES
Few suggestion of activities are:

1. Students can use this tool to introduce themselves. This activity is valid during the first or second lesson in the class. The teacher may asks the students to use 'Pharasr' and make up a story about themselves. They may include about their name, their family, their favourite food and drink, their favourite colour etc. Then, they need to e-mail their work to their teacher. If there is enough time in the class, teacher may ask volunteers for the students to present their work in front of others.
2. This tool could also be used by the teacher to introduce idioms or grammatical structure. For example, in advance, the teacher herself make a presentation using 'Pharasr' and show it to the students in the class. Then, the teacher may elicit the grammatical structure/idioms from the students - I assume that this activity is for pre-teaching activity.
3. This tool is also useful for the students to get some ideas about their writing. For example, the teacher may asks the students to one of the most important items in their life. It could be a bag, a ring or a dress. Then, using this tool, the students need to make up few sentences with some pictures, explaining the items that they have chosen. Then, they need to present their work to their friends (in pairs). Then, as the homework, they need to write an essay about the most important items in their life.

*This tool combine the use of images with sentences. Therefore, this tool is highly recommended for visual and linguistic learners since they can maximise their visual and linguistic and learning styles.*

*Using this tool also allows for personalisation. This is because students can choose any images that they like and prefer. This personalisation could be a motivation for students to learn. In addition the personalisation would also allow the students to create something which relates to them. By doing this, they can collaborate their schemata in their first language with their second language.*

*This tool also suitable to encourage students to speak. This point is applicable when the students need to work in pairs and explain about their work that they have done.*

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT PHRASR

1. It is FREE
2. You do not break the copyright of taking images from internet
3. May e-mail your presentation to you friends, teachers etc
4. Allow for personalisation for the students - students can freely choose images. 

PROBLEMS WITH PHRASR

1. The images is from flickr. If the owner delete the image, you won't be able to see it in your presentation.
2. Some pictures are not appropriate to be viewed by the young learners
3. Time consuming in looking for appropriate and suitable pictures. Based on my experience, sometimes, there is no suitable picture at all.
4. Basically you can't pause the slide while doing presentation. 

PERSONAL THOUGHT ON PHRASR

# Personally, I would not recommend teachers or students to use this website because I found that this website is not very useful and helpful. Most of the images are not appropriate and does not match with the sentence at all. So, it is such as waste of time looking for suitable images. It could de-motivate the students since they could not find suitable images for their sentence. 

WORDLE

WHAT IS WORDLE
It is a tool to generate 'words clouds' from a text. This tool could be used for analysing and visualising a text. The clouds will show the most frequent words in larger font size and the less frequent words in smaller size. 

AGE AND LEVEL OF LEARNERS
# Age of learners - Eleven years old and above (at this age, students are expected to be able to analyse a text)
# Level of learners - All levels be it lower, intermediate or advanced


HOW TO USE WORDLE
# Go to the Wordle Website 

# Paste your text in the box provided and click 'Go' (You need to install Java Player to view your Wordle)
# Then, your paste text will appear in which the most common words will be in the biggest font size
# You may change its language, font, layout and colour
# You also can randomise the words based on your preference (a lot of choice are available)

# You can save your Wordle in the public gallery and in the future, if you wish to delete it, you may do so (but remember to save the URL provided!)

EXAMPLE OF WORDLE
Below is an example of the text cloud that I have made using Wordle. The text is a short story entitled 'Hansel and Gretel'.

Example 1: 

Example 2: 

SUGGESTION OF ACTIVITIES
Few suggestion of activities in using Wordle for language teaching:

1. Pre-reading activity to activate prior knowledge - Teacher can paste the reading text in Wordle and show it to the students. Then, teacher asks the students to guess what the text is about.
2. Elicit speaking - Teacher shows a word cloud and asks the students to give their own opinion about the text. Students may talk about: what the text is about, key points in the text etc. Another option could be that the students work in group and use Wordle for a basis of discussion. 
3. In writing essay - students write a draft of an essay then, they can paste their draft and analyse their writing. They can see what are the most words or phrases that they tend to use and it can also help to spot cliche.
4.  Could also be used to summarise big ideas of a chapter or passage of a text. For this activity, the teacher could ask the students to work in pairs and use Wordle to summarise the text. Then, some students need to present their summary.  

*Some of the activities provided would develop collaborative learning since they need to work in group and discuss some of the ideas. In addition, this would enhance the students' speaking skill*

*Using Wordle is parallel with constructivism approach in which learners learn knowledge by constructing their own understanding of what they have learnt. This refers to Activity 1, 2 and 4.*

WHY USE WORDLE

1. It is FREE!
2. Print version is available - so, you can print it
3. Could be used for both colour lovers or colour blinders (the Wordle available in black and white as well as coulourful)
4. Suitable for visual learners especially
5. It can enhance students to speak 
6. Creative way to present ideas or key points
7. Develop critical thinking skills - use Wordle to analyse main ideas, make predictions and to critique and revise essays. 

PROBLEM(S) WITH WORDLE

1. Wordle has a very short memory of the image that it creates - If you forgot to save your Wordle and you open a new image, the image of the old one will lose. 

VISUWORDS

WHAT IS VISUWORDS
VisuWords is an online web-based visual dictionary and thesaurus tool. This tool is used to look up for a word meaning and its associations with other words in visual interface. Different nodes colour and circle colours represents different meaning and there are guidelines presented.




AGE AND LEVEL OF LEARNERS
# Age of learners - thirteen and above since at this age, learners will use more dictionary and thesaurus
# Level of learners - All levels (low, intermediate and advanced) since this tool is very easy and comprehensible to use. 




HOW TO USE VISUWORDS
Go to this website: VisuWords Website. You will be directed to this page:

Then, enter your chosen word or combination of words (common expression) in the search box and and the words with nodes and circle will appear. You may use the key at the left edge of the screen to interpret what different colours stand for. You can also view the definition for any of the terms on the web by moving the mouse over the word. In addition, you can drag the nodes and rearrange the image to concentrate on the parts that you are interested with.




EXAMPLE OF VISUWORDS
Below is a caption of VisuWords that I use when I search for the word 'play'

SUGGESTION OF ACTIVITIES
Few examples of activities for using this tool for teaching:

1. In pre-reading activity - Teacher provide few vocabulary items taken from the reading text. In pairs, teacher asks the students to guess the meaning. Then, using VisuWords, they need to check whether their guessing are correct or not. At the same time, they need to provide an example of sentence for each of the vocabulary item. 
2. A very simple way of using VisuWords in pre-reading activity is by the teacher herself shows to the students the meaning of vocabulary using this tool. 
3. Students can use this tool when they are writing an essay. For example, teacher asks the students to write and essay in the class. Then, when they want to search for a word meaning or synonym, they could use VisuWords instead of dictionary. They can also use this tool even outside the classroom. 
4. Studants can also use VisuWords in learning vocabulary. For example, for each lesson, teacher provides newspaper for the students and they can choose any article that they like. Then, they can spend around 15 minutes to read the article. When they come across any unfamiliar words, they can use VisuWords to search the meaning/synonym. 

*Using VisuWords could be a platform towards autonomous learning. This is because in some of the activities which I have provided, the students themselves need to need to search for the meaning of the vocabulary instead of asking teacher and the teacher provide the answer*

*VisuWords also beneficial for communicative learning. For example, in activity 1, learners work in pairs and they need to discuss the meaning of the words. This shows that they need to engage in communication.*

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT VISUWORDS

1. Its Free - no membership required
2. Attractive because it is colourful
3. Two in one - could be used as both dictionary and thesaurus
4. Save time - do not have to look up in the dictionary/thesaurus book

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS 

1. Has link to twitter - could be distraction for users. 
2. The colour code is complicated to understand
3. The colour blinders might have problem in identifying the colour code

WORDSIFT

WHAT IS WORDSIFT
WordSift is a website which allows user to insert text and play with the result. WordSift take the most used 50 words of the text and present them in which the bigger the words, the most common the word appear in the text. Users could also search for Google images which relate to the words. In addition, there is also visual thesaurus where the students can look up for the synonym of the word. Besides that, the example of sentences which relate to the word also available. The example is taken from the text inserted.

AGE AND LEVEL OF LEARNERS
# Age of learners - Thirteen and above
# Level of students - All level of students (low, intermediate and advanced)

HOW TO USE WORDSIFT
Firstly, go to the Wordsift Webpage and it will appear like this:

Then you enter your text in the box provided on the WordSift homepage and click the 'Sift' button On the next page, you will get a tag cloud (maximum 50 words) which has important words from the text. You can click on any of the words and it displays related Google image, visual thesaurus and example of sentences taken from the text. For full training on how to use WordSift, you may click this link:
# WordSift Tutorial

EXAMPLE OF WORDSIFT
This is an example of how the most frequent words looks like when it is put in the WordSift:

From the text, we can guess that the article might be about an old witch woman.


SUGGESTION OF ACTIVITIES
There are a lot of activities which could be done in the classroom using WordSift. Some examples are:

1. It could be used for pre-reading activities where teacher can use WordSift to preview the text. As all the most used words occur, the teacher can asks the students to guess what the text is about. Besides guessing what the text is about, the teacher can use WordSift and asks the students to identify the key words of the text. Then, the teacher can proceed with while-reading activity. 
2. Another activity that this tool could be used to discuss different meaning of words using Google images and thesaurus provided in this website. Students can also use this tool to check the synonyms of the most important vocabulary in the text. 
3. WordSift could also be used to preview the most frequent words using by students in their writing. For example, the teacher asks the students to write an argumentative essay on 'Should English be the official language in Malaysia?' Then, when they finish write the essay, they need to paste their writing on the Worsift to see the frequent words that they have used. After that, in pairs, they would compare their finding and try to share the points that they have made in their essay. 

*This tool could be used to create a collaborative learning among the students (refer to example 3). The students need to engage in communication and try to get information from each other.*

*  This tool is suitable for various ways of learning styles be it linguistics and visual . The students can work with sentences and words and can look at the images.* 

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT WORDSIFT

1. It is free. 
2. Very easy to use - just need to copy and paste the text in the column provided
3. The Google image provided could be an attraction for the students. 
4. Can copy and paste the images, words and sentences identified by WordSift into a separate file (eg: Microsoft word) and then print it out.  
5. The meaning of the word is also provided (put the mouse on the word in the visual thesaurus and you can see the meaning) 
6. Could be used in other languages as well, not only in English

PROBLEMS WITH WORDSIFT

1. The image provided sometimes inappropriate for young learners
2. Students might not understand the meaning of all the synonyms provided - this would create a problem if they asks they teacher to explains to them. 
3. Not all the synonym provided is useful for them - students might have difficulties in choosing the right synonym
4. Some of the images are not related to the words at all.
5. Too many images provided - time consuming to choose appropriate and suitable image

#Other similar application for visualising text and words are: Lexipedia, Visuwords and Wordle